One of the great joys I experience in serving as your executive director-treasurer is the opportunity to watch as you serve and meet needs in so many different and unique ways. I have been able to talk with you and visit in your churches and hear how God is using you to meet both physical and spiritual needs in our state and around the world.

Year after year, one of the ways North Carolina Baptists so faithfully respond to the cry for help is through the North Carolina Baptist Hospital Mother’s Day Offering. This offering helps patients at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center pay their hospital bills. The patients and families who benefit from this offering are struggling to pay their hospital bills and often have no idea how they will be able to do so.

For example, if you visit the Mother’s Day Offering website (mothersdayoffering.com) you can read the story of Logan McGirt. When Logan was diagnosed with leukemia his mom had to quit her job so she could stay home and take care of her son.

Logan’s dad also missed many days of work as he tried to help care for his son.

Rhonda, Logan’s mom, had this to say: “We are a hard-working family. But within the first two months, all the savings were gone. We were afraid of losing everything.”

But then, the McGirts received a letter in the mail that read, “Your son’s hospital bill has been paid by compassionate and mission-minded North Carolina Baptists in the name of Jesus Christ and His love.”
Your sacrificial giving to the Mother’s Day Offering helps people like the McGirts, and so many others, find relief from financial burdens.

This year’s offering theme is “God’s love at work” and the theme verses are John 5:17 and 1 John 4:11. As you help meet these financial needs, you do so in the name of Jesus Christ. You become the hands of Jesus Christ, showing people His love and helping point people to our Savior.

The Mother’s Day Offering website features more stories like Logan’s that you can share with your church as you encourage your congregation to support this offering. The website also includes free promotional resources such as bulletin inserts and a mission leader’s guide.

Paul Mullen, who is the North Carolina Baptist Hospital director of church and community relations, does a remarkable job coordinating the Mother’s Day Offering and helping share with us stories of how this offering is making a difference. I encourage you to contact Paul if you have any questions or would like more information.

Please pray about how you and your church can support this offering and help change many lives across our state.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:11

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Mother’s Day Offering, prayer help family through ‘scary time’

As I listened to the wonderful musicians and waited for the time in the program when I would preach, I couldn’t help but marvel at this unique opportunity. This very stage where I sat, in this very building, was used during the Soviet Union days as a place where Communist principles were taught.

Although it is now run down, I can’t imagine what this building looked like in its prime. I imagine it sparkled and shined and looked pristine. I imagine it was a sight to behold as people poured in for rallies and special events.

But just a few weeks ago I watched as people packed the auditorium not to hear Communist propaganda, but to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed. For two evenings, on a Saturday and a Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching the gospel to people from villages throughout the Moldovan district of Ungheni.

On Saturday night the Lord impressed upon my heart to preach from John 3:16. I knew God wanted these people to know how much He loved them and how much He wanted a personal relationship with them.

BSC photo by Kenny Lamm

Milton Hollifield, left, was part of a team of Baptist State Convention employees who recently went on a mission trip to Moldova. Team members worked with Moldovan leaders to build plans for the future of its partnership. For more stories, see pages 1 and 9. Visit flickr.com/photos/ncbaptist.

I want you to know that I approached these services with a great sense of responsibility. Perhaps more than any time in my life, I felt such a dependence upon God; a total dependence on Him for every thought and every word I shared during those messages.

I cannot tell you the overwhelming burden I had as I looked out into the crowd and realized that most of the faces staring back at me did not know Jesus Christ. God reminded me that He loves every single person on this earth and that He died to save people in Moldova just like He died to save me. What a joy it was to see many of them accept Christ as their Savior.

I was preaching in Moldova because I was on a mission trip with 10 other members of your Baptist State Convention staff. In addition to preaching during the two evangelistic services, Chuck Register and I were blessed to teach during pastors’ conferences throughout Moldova.

Other members of our mission team faithfully served each day in different villages in Ungheni. They helped with food distribution, children’s camps and shared the gospel with people in the villages.

I want you to know how blessed I am to have been granted this opportunity from God to serve Him in Moldova. I was blessed to serve alongside our Convention staff, and I was blessed to see God work in the hearts of Moldovans.

Our Convention’s Office of Great Commission Partnerships is coordinating this Moldova partnership, and you can learn more by visiting ncbaptist.org/moldova.

Your Convention staff has a desire to see people come to faith in Jesus Christ – this is why we went to Moldova. My prayer is that North Carolina Baptist churches all across this state will join the work God is doing in Moldova.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

ABOUT THE BIBLICAL RECORDER
Since 1833 the Biblical Recorder has served North Carolina Baptists as the Baptist State Convention's official news journal - with the emphasis on news. The paper was founded by Thomas Meredith, an early pastor, writer and denominational statesman in North Carolina.